Viking, Vanguard, Scout launch complex. The LC18 complex included two launch pads 18A and 18B. Pad 18A was used to launch 14 Vanguard space vehicles for NASA and the U.S. Navy between 8 December 1956 and 19 September 1959. Following termination of the Vanguard program, Pad 18A supported ten Blue Scout Junior launches for the Air Force between 21 September 1960 and 10 June 1965. Complex 18 was deactivated on 1 February 1967.

Vanguard 1 American technology satellite. 4 launches, 1957.12.06 (Vanguard 1A) to 1958.04.29 (Vanguard 2A). An engineering test satellite. Based on orbital position data derived from its transmissions, the shape of the earth was refined. More...

Vanguard 2 American earth magnetosphere satellite. 4 launches, 1958.05.28 (Vanguard 2B) to 1959.02.17 (Vanguard 2). The actual operational satellite that was to be launched by the Vanguard launcher. More...

Vanguard American orbital launch vehicle. Vanguard was the 'civilian' vehicle developed by the US Navy to launch America's first satellite as part of the International Geophysical Year. The Army / von Braun Jupiter-C instead launched the first US satellite after Sputnik and Vanguard's public launch failure. The second stage design led to the Able upper stage for Thor/Atlas, and then to the Delta upper stage still in use in the 21st Century. The original version of Vanguard used a Grand Central final stage. More...

Cape Canaveral America's largest launch center, used for all manned launches. Today only six of the 40 launch complexes built here remain in use. Located at or near Cape Canaveral are the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, used by NASA for Saturn V and Space Shuttle launches; Patrick AFB on Cape Canaveral itself, operated the US Department of Defense and handling most other launches; the commercial Spaceport Florida; the air-launched launch vehicle and missile Drop Zone off Mayport, Florida, located at 29.00 N 79.00 W, and an offshore submarine-launched ballistic missile launch area. All of these take advantage of the extensive down-range tracking facilities that once extended from the Cape, through the Caribbean, South Atlantic, and to South Africa and the Indian Ocean. More...

Thor Able second test. - .
Nation: USA. PIONEER I, U.S.-IGY space probe under direction of NASA and with the AFBMD as executive agent, launched from AMR, Cape Canaveral, Fla., by a Thor-Able-I booster. It raveled 70,700 miles before returning to earth, determined radial extent of great radiation belt, first observations of earth's and interplanetary magnetic field, and first measurements of micrometeorite density in interplanetary space.